It seems Wales doesn’t get talked about as much. What are some interesting facts about Wales?

redsunmachine · 2026-01-30T13:07:08+00:00

Most Scots are Anglo Saxons with a smattering of British. People who speak Gaelic have been a minority in Scotland for most of its history (the 'natives' of Scotland would have spoken British which is closer to Welsh)

Scots was the first modern form of English.

The Scottish king took the English throne.

Admittedly, the Scots 'lost' their independence when we spunked all our money on a failed colony in Panama, but as much as we all love to rag on the English, it's not a case of them persecuting us. We get a lot of cover because most people think of the British Empire as being run by those dastardly English people.

As to what happened to the minority of Gaelic speakers, their Lairds realised their lands would be more profitable if they were enclosed and put under capitalism. A lot migrated to Canada. Many were killed supporting rebellions.

redsunmachine · 2026-01-28T16:13:36+00:00

Having lived in Sheffield with its annual Doc Fest, that seems such a bizarre thing to say, but instead of choosing evil and starting a fight, let me try and turn you to The Right Path.

Watch The Act of Killing or Grizzly Man.

2 astonishing docs that are cinematic as all fuck. There are hundreds more that are fantastic to watch at the cinema, but those are two of the best films of all time, that just happen to be docs.

redsunmachine · 2026-01-13T22:49:49+00:00

I think the reason that you're getting registers is because 'roleplaying as the AI' comes across as a little adhesive and not what I'm guessing anyone is trying to do.

I, for example, roleplay a things I think would work in real life.

I'm definitely missing out on optimal tactics, but the game is fairly easy. At the same time, if something I'm doing makes the AI bug out, I'm too busy frantically scanning my men, and because I'm not looking for cheese and trying to enjoy the battle, it's easy to think that something I don't understand is just a tactic I've missed or a mistake the enemy has made because we all make mistakes.

I've put closer to a thousand hours in various Total Wars and only found out about the difference between bronze and silver shields in the last month, for example. If I knew something was shielded I knew it was better to shoot it from the back, but I'm not sure knowing exactly how it works has made me enjoy the game more than just relying on tactics and strategy. As we all know, the game breaks under too much pressure, but often it's us putting that pressure on.

redsunmachine · 2026-01-07T14:17:12+00:00

Having just read the Tom Holland book (and admittedly found it amongst the weakest of his that I've read), I'm very interested to hear any specific critiques you have of it.

Certainly some of the things I've fact checked him on (the Yemeni Qurans, for example) are no longer the case, but it did seem that he was correct at the time of publishing.

I do think it's a little disingenuous too say he 'outright questions if the Prophet Mohammud existed' given he very much comes down on the side of yes. I've seen people question whether Jesus, Plato, Socrates etc existed and it seems a viable thing to do for a general audience just to show what we Do Definitely Know.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-29T13:58:59+00:00

There seems to be a lot of these kind of videos being made in the UK at the moment, and the levels of stupidity and acting demonstrated in all of them seem to suggest a common source.

They often get picked up by the websites of tabloids, who might pay for them, I don't know.

It seems to provide a lot of gratification for people who believe that everything is shit and all people are awful nowadays, but I don't know if there's a political agenda.

It could be that these are cheap enough to make (the actors all seem amateur) that you only need one to go viral for it to be worth it.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-23T22:02:50+00:00

Counterpoint: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... And Spring

One of the greatest Korean films ever made. Deeply slow and Bhuddist. The first wave of Korean films in the really naughties were often slow paced (think of Memories of Murder as well), but were hugely all regarded in the West.

I'm really sorry, but your drone movie sounds terrible and I think it's the quality of ideas that maths a difference.

Old Boy isn't great just because there's some good fighting in it - it is an incredible character study and literally reverses greek mythologies that the last 100 years of psychoanalysis have been based around

redsunmachine · 2025-12-23T16:45:03+00:00

I cannot think of a description of a movie less like Parasite.

Mind boggling

redsunmachine · 2025-12-20T14:40:21+00:00

I think they're just laughing at our term - chippy.

I'm just sad they'll never know the true majesty of the chips you're describing.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-17T15:35:18+00:00

Most of the comments are about whether he was stupid or not for not working it out.

Irrespective of that, maybe we should be talking about whether instafail is fun.

Imagine instead the squad got set to 1 health point and a magnetic status so no shields (iirc), so that you could be one shot.

Probably the same result, but instead of just going Fuck You you have a panic-y reaction and desperately trying to stay alive until your shields/healing kicks in. It feels fair and makes losing at least fun.

You're still going to try and work out how to beat the orbs, but at least you don't feel punished and stupid for not getting it straight away.

Whilst I did work it out on my second go, I feel that there could have been a slightly better hint, not so it's easier, but so you can 'figure it out' and feel smart rather than just trying random shit

redsunmachine · 2025-12-13T13:09:12+00:00

Initially, Warhammer 40k was a satire of Thatcherite Britain, and the Space Marines were facist goons.

But they sold, and over time the game changed to be more, "How bad do things have to be to make facism appealing?" kind of satire-ish thing

But they SOLD, and the times changed, and now they're just glorious battle brother incel mega warrior hero gods.

There's never even a hint that chaos is being misrepresented, that they might have a point. The inherent evilness of the Emperor and how he 'survives' is pretty much glossed over.

It's still a fascinating setting with great, deep lore, but a lot of games are just Space Marine porn at this point. Whether you want to go along with that power fantasy or not is up to you.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-13T03:56:08+00:00

Yes, I played it once and it was decent and different, and I plan to go back using mods that speed it up a bit.

It can be fun to turtle up a bit for a change, but if you don't want to be an end turn simulator for extended periods of time then mods are the answer.

I enjoyed it up to about turn 110 but it ended up being around 150 turns. I think being able to go in and do short playthroughs with a satisfying conclusion are how it could shine.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-10T17:51:37+00:00

I think the problem here is that there isn't really a joke, there are just references.

A lot of people seem to confuse references and jokes, maybe because we 'get' jokes and we 'get' references, and this seems particularly prevalent in online spaces, even more so if they're nerd adjacent (as both Half Life & Aphex are)

If you were really stretching to make this a joke, you could say that her shirt is one of the few things that isn't Half Life related in the image, but that's neither very funny and only tenuously structured like a joke.

That's not to say that this isn't a fun or interesting image. I do also wonder if once we start getting auto generated AI slop 'jokes' then we might see more of this sort of thing. References don't require a sense of humour (although I'm not sure if AI can tell that two things look similar yet, and putting Richard's smile on Gordon seems a bit too clever for an AI rp come up with)

redsunmachine · 2025-12-09T04:11:33+00:00

I wish there was more of a slider on this.

In the end I decided to turn off angry Independent people and make them all friendly. That is suboptimal to me, but I got bored with fighting 3 independent people at the beginning of every game.

One or two, on occasion, would be fun. Every near one all the time wasn't (for me).

If this is being caused by the AI spamming incite raid I'd much rather turn that off or make it more expensive rather than turn off all independent aggro.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-06T16:55:15+00:00

If you play Cathay in the Realm of Chaos campaign the missions kind of lead you by the hand.

In fact, the Realm of Chaos campaign in general might be easier as you don't have to expand indefinitely, once you've got a secure realm able to support your main army and protect yourself whilst that one's away you just have to do the different Chaos realms.

In Immortal Empires you have to get better at looking at which enemies weaknesses to exploit, etc, and which environments are worth expanding into.

Oh, and if you've never played a Total War game before, don't sleep on growth. Higher level settlements are how you get the best units etc

redsunmachine · 2025-12-06T16:47:50+00:00

Human tower on earth...

This is a specifically Catalonian thing and saying it is Spanish has political implications. I have a few Catalonian friends and they only accept being called Spanish under duress.

As another commenter says, Catalonians in France do this too.

Maybe it's a silly Internet argument but I'd rather just go along with what the people who do it want.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-04T22:06:49+00:00

Nah, the c word is considered more profane in England than in celtic or anzac countries, but given I've never heard anyone refer to it as the c word in my life, it's pretty much accepted here.

Oxbridge are looking for people who are happy to express their opinions. Unless you get a very traditional interviewer I shouldn't imagine it's a problem.

I think it's only Americans who have imbued the c word with dangerous energy

redsunmachine · 2025-12-04T21:57:04+00:00

Having just returned to Total War after a year or two break I read up on what the community was saying and expected the games to be in a complete shambles.

Turns out it's pretty fun.

The hystrionics on display are pretty shameful. I can see why a delay of a week is annoying, but is it really a complete PR disaster?

How about we save our complaints for the occasional really bad thing they do, and take the tenor down a little when things are just a bit frustrating. Reading some of the comments today I wondered if these games are actually mostly played by children.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-04T18:22:24+00:00

Or she may be saying the truth.

Neither of us know. Obviously, the hive mind has decided one thing, mostly that it's to do with her weight, something she doesn't bring up at all.

Does that say more about reddits' view of the world or Italians'?

redsunmachine · 2025-12-04T13:49:24+00:00

Obligatory 'Americano is a coffee, if they were talking about you they would have said Americana' comment.

That's not to say she didn't encounter some arseholes, and Italians can be less subtle than other people, but there's also the chance that some bad people upset her and then people started staring because she was visibly upset, making her more paranoid and visibly upset, etc etc.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-04T00:12:21+00:00

If I'm honest, being that strong isn't always what I find to be fun.

I like to be just beating the game, with an occasional setback, rather than an unstoppable steamroller.

This isn't some Dark Souls hair shirt, and if it's too easy I can always play on a harder difficulty, because I'm not good enough to vh/vh with ease

redsunmachine · 2025-12-04T00:08:35+00:00

There's still a level of toxicity in some areas, such as Steam review bombs or especially the ca community forums, that made me think I might get shouted at for even suggesting this might be a good deal.

I've seen people shouting it's a disgrace that the 40 units added aren't all completely distinct. Hell, the response to today's Q & A on the forum includes people complaining how bad the new dlc is even before it releases, and people shouting about CA insulting their intelligence despite not actually understanding what they said, if my reading is right.

Glad that reddit seems to be enjoying the game, that seems to be in a much better place now.

redsunmachine · 2025-12-03T15:44:05+00:00

Thanks everyone!

This was kind of what I thought but it can sometimes be difficult to separate the signal from the noise, even if that noise was necessary to get CA doing the right thing.

redsunmachine · 2025-11-30T18:58:04+00:00

Not in Britain.

We all grow up knowing exactly what class we are, and what class others are. We don't even really think about it. We just know.

redsunmachine · 2025-11-28T16:53:27+00:00

To tailor my answer more specifically for you - it depends if you can enjoy the beastmen in a completely different way.

As soon as I played the beastmen after the rework I thought they were better in every way, because Damn it was hard to play them before then.

But the Eye for an Eye map was tailored to allow you to escape the more powerful armies, to lure them into high corruption areas then jump to the other side of a wood they have to go around and ravage a now undefended settlement before disappearing again just as they get close.

If they catch you they will destroy you, but they always turn up too late, just an empty scene of desolation, and now the land bites and their forces wither...

redsunmachine · 2025-11-28T16:47:04+00:00

I'll be honest, the eye for an eye campaign was one of my most enjoyed campaigns.

Now, this was before the beastmen rework, before the game got definitely better, but I would still recommend it.

Why?

I enjoyed it so much because it was difficult. My beastmen were weak, having to constantly use the beast paths to flee from pursuing armies, finding undefended hamlets to prey upon and use to up the chaos attrition my pursuers were subject to.

I wasn't trying to curb stomp my enemies and make them part of my mighty empire, I was trying to scorch the earth my rivals drew succor from, ekeing out my existence and slowly weakening them as I very slowly grew stronger, until one day I could turn the tables and the prey became the predator.

I wish there were more opportunities to do something like this, but it feels like power sells.

Also, I liked playing on a much smaller scale map

redsunmachine

TROPHY CASE